Carom games are well-known and have existed in various forms for thousands of years. Examples of such games include bowling, billiards, bocce, carom, skittles, and marbles, the latter having been played in ancient Egypt and Greece. Generally, a carom game includes one or more target objects arranged upon a substantially planar, often horizontal, surface, and a player must strike the target objects with a projectile. As the name suggests, the target objects are arranged to strike and rebound off each other, i.e., carom, when struck by the projectile. The objective for striking the target objects depends upon the particular carom game.
In bowling, the objective is to knock down a plurality of target objects arranged on an elongated playing field, called a “bowling lane”, by rolling a heavy ball down the bowling lane into the target objects. The target objects, which are called “bowling pins” or simply “pins”, vary in shape depending on the particular bowling game. In general, however, a pin is an elongated, substantially cylindrical object having a planar bottom surface, which allows it to stand upright on the playing surface. The pins are usually arranged in rows and in a particular formation, such as a triangle. Due to their cylindrical shape, pins which are knocked over during the game do not always roll off the playing field and tend to remain thereon. Such pins obstruct play and must be removed from the playing field in order to continue the game. Originally, prior to the advent of automation, pins which were knocked over were cleared off the playing field and reset by hand.
Presently, such clearing and resetting is performed by various machines which, by means of elaborate and complex components, sweep the pins from the playing field, collect the swept pins and the ball, reset the pins on the playing field, and return the ball to the player. One of the most common examples of such a machine comprises an arm, which sweeps the pins from the playing field, a shaking board or “shaker”, which receives the swept pins and ball and transfers the ball and pins to the rear of a pit arranged behind the lane by means of violent vibration. The machine further comprises two large spinning wheels, namely, a ballwheel and a pin-wheel. The ball wheel lifts the ball up to two lift rods, which deposit it onto an underground metal track driven by an accelerator belt which carries the ball back toward the player, and two pulleys lift the ball and deposit it for the player. The pin-wheel comprises a plurality of pockets which are arranged to capture the pins. The shaker shakes the pins until they are all positioned within the pockets, and the pinwheel transfers the pins into a metal tray, which orients the pins. Subsequently, a conveyor belt lifts the pins, and the pins slide into a metal basket called the “turret”. The turret is operatively arranged to simultaneously drop the pins into a spotting table, which then lowers them onto the lane.
Clearly, such an elaborate machine is costly to manufacture, install, maintain, and repair. Additionally, building a scaled-down version of such a machine for a table-top version of the game may not be feasible.
As can be derived from the variety of devices and methods directed at setting targets on a playing field of a carom game, many means have been contemplated to accomplish the desired end. Heretofore, tradeoffs between the complexity of the devices and the scale of the game were required. Thus, there is a long-felt need for a gaming device for carom games which includes a simple means for collecting and setting a plurality of targets on the playing field.